1 January 2012

Please note: this news article is in our archive. Articles were correct at time of publication, but should not be relied on for accuracy after the passage of time.

MP Nicholas Soames has presented Town Mayor John Saull and Council Leader Norman Webster with an award from Google UK saluting the internet-savvy companies who have put East Grinstead into the nation’s “top 20” for towns with the highest rate of growth through the Internet.

Statistics show that local businesses are increasingly turning to online opportunities to drive up growth during the present difficult trading conditions, and East Grinstead came in 16th out of 700 towns with almost 24% growth in 2010 to 2011.

He said: “East Grinstead has a great deal to be proud of with this Google award, and I hope it encourages other local businesses to get and grow online. It has always been my firm belief that East Grinstead is a town that, given a bit more self-confidence and sense of direction, could make a fantastic success of its unexploited assets.

“I hope that East Grinstead and its energetic and entrepreneurial people will embrace the astonishing commercial value of the internet which is now in the UK home to the largest per capita e-commerce market and the second largest online-advertising market globally. By 2015, the internet will probably account for about 10% of the UK’s GDP.”

Town Council Tourist Information Officer Simon Kerr has also reported a huge surge in enquiries on the Town Council Accommodation web pages.

“We have thousands of visits through the year, and new visitors formed around 70% of those viewing our pages during the past 12 months.”

* Google specifically earmarked the St James’s Dental Practice in East Grinstead as being one of the best-performing businesses locally. Dr Irene Curtis who is the Clinical Lead at St James’s and her daughter Catriona Neville, the Practice Manager, are pictured above with Deputy Mayor Liz Bennett, Town Mayor John Saull, Nicholas Soames MP and Council Leader Norman Webster.